STRESS AND ITS RELATED FACTORS AMONG STUDENTS OF KHAWAJA MUHAMMAD SAFDAR MEDICAL COLLEGE

Introduction: Stress is the body’s reaction towards changes that require physical, mental and physiological adjustment. When it sustains for longer periods of time, leads to have detrimental effects on the physical and mental well-being of the individual. Globally presence of stress is highly variable with a prevalence rate of 52.4% - 79% and around 79% in Pakistan. Medical studies have always been stressful and demanding. This increased academic demand along with inter-personal relationships and financial problems have been associated with highly stressed states among medical students which ultimately leads to adverse effects on mental health and causes impaired cognitive functioning of medical students.Objectives: The objectives were to find out prevalence of stress and its severity among medical college students and to identify the factors related to it.Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional questionnaire based study was conducted in period from 1st May to 1st June 2017 in Khawaja Muhammad Safdar Medical College,Pakistan. 220 students were selected randomly and data was collected on Kessler (k10) questionnaire covering all variables. Data was entered and analyze on SPSS 20.0. Qualitative variables like stress frequency and percentages were used and quantitative variables like age were expressed in mean and standard deviation. Chi-square tests were used as a test of association. P-value ≤ 0.05 was taken as significant.Result: Mean age of students was 21 years ± 1.749SD, median being 21 years. 103(46.8%) were males and 117(53.2%) were females. Overall prevalence of stress was 176/220(80%). Socio-demographic profile included 49(90.7%) below age 20yrs, 127(76.5%) ≥ 20yrs had stress. Out of 176/220(80%) stressed students, 98(83.8%) were females and 78(75.7%) were males. 37(94.9%) day scholars and 13(76.8%) were hostellites who were having stress. 89(100%) had income <100,000/month in which 67(75.31%) were stressed. 131(100%) had income ≥ 100,000/month, in which 109(83.2%) were stressed. Out of 117(100%) non clinical year students, 91(88.3%) had stress. Out of 103(100%) clinical year students, 85(72.6%) were stressed. Frequency of stress was categorized as mild 71(32.3%), moderate 59(26.8%) and severe 46(20.9%).A significant association was found between age of student and stress. Age group of students <20 years 49(90.7%) were more stressed. Similarly stress was more prevalent among day scholar students 37(94.9%). Significant association of stress with students of non-clinical classes 91(88.3%) was found. Monthly household income had no association with prevalence of stress though significant association was found between stress and financial factors.Most common factors related to stress were interpersonal relationships and financial. No significant association was found between personal habits of students and stress. Conclusion: Stress is high in students of